Railroad-joint



(No Model.)

R. 1v1. AGEB su E. LANE. RAILROAD JOINT. l1\I0.430,052.

Patented June 10. 1890.

Fdwardlawe UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

REUBEN M. AGEE AND EDWARD LANE, OE CANTON, MISSOURI.

RAILROAD-JOINT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 430,052, dated June 10,1890. Application filed January 31, 1 890. `Serial No. 338,710. (Nomodel.)

vwheels of a train over the adjacent ends of rails without jar andwithout detriment to the rails, and capable of permitting the expansionand contraction of the rails without liability of weakening the parts.

A further object of the invention is to securely prevent the accidentalunscrewing of the nuts, ordinarily caused by the passage of trains overthe rails.

The invention consists in the construction and novel combination andarrangement of parts, hereinafter fully described, illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claim hereto appended.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of a rail-jointconstructed in accordance with this invention. Fig. 2 is a horizontallongitudinal sectional View. Fig. 3 is a side elevation.

Referring tothe accompanying drawings, l 'i designate the ends ofadjacent rails, which are connected together by fish-plates 2 and 3,that are securedto the rails by bolts 4, that pass through transversethrough the rails and the fish-plates, and the boltopenings 5 ot' theIish plates are elongated and adapted to permit a limited movement ofthe bolts longitudinally along the fish-plate and the rails to allow forthe creeping of the latter and prevent the rails being torn from theirfastenings during contraction and expansion. The {ish-plate 3 isprovided intermediate of its ends with a bridge portion 6, that has itsupper face flush with the tread of the rails, and arranged at the eX-treme ends of the rails and forming a bridge openings to carry thewheels of a train over the ends without jar and detriment to the rails.The nuts 7 of the bolts are prevented from becoming accidentallyunscrewed by springplates 8, each of which is designed to be secured tothree bolts and bear again st the nuts thereof, and by frictionalcontact therewith securely lock the same. The spring-plates are slightlycurved and are provided with perforations to receive the bolts, and whenthe nuts are screwed home the ends of the spring-plates are pressed in,thereby causing the spring-plates to exert apressure upon the nutssufcient to lock them, and by pressing the ends of the spring-platesinward the central portion is forced outward and against the middle nut,thereby securely locking the latter. The fish-plates are provided'intheir outer edges with openings 9, through which pass the spikes thatsecure the iish-plates to the ties, and the rails near their ends arenot spiked to the ties, which arrangement leaves them free to expand andcontract without loosening the fastenings. The adjacent ends of thesprings or plates S lap over upon the bridge portion 6 and are securedthereto by the central pair of bolts.

Having described our invention, what we claim is- In a rail-j oint, thecombination of the rails, the fish-plates secured to the tie, one ofsaid plates being provided with the bridge portion 6, arranged Hush withthe tread of the rail, the bolts passing through the fish-plates and therail, and the slightly-curved spring-plates having their adjacent endslapping over upon the bridge portion, each spring-plate being secured tothree bolts and adapted to engage the nuts thereof, substantially as andfor the purpose described.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing as our own we have heretoaffixed our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

REUBEN M. AGEE. EDWARD LANE. Witnesses:

LEANDER T. I-IENDEIoKs, WILLIE A. JACKSON.

